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Formula Ford http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=15108 |
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Author: | Earley Motorsports [ June 2, 2013, 9:10 pm ] |
Post subject: | Formula Ford |
Quite a while ago somewhere on here I posted I had picked up a Formula Ford frame and body off of Colin Burns on this site. Colin had the car and was going to try and make a street car out of it but eventually decided it wasn't going to be practical to go that route and decided to give it away or throw it out. That is when I stepped in and took it. Well it has come a long way since then and for those interested here are some pictures taken recently. This is going to be fun. Graham. |
Author: | gregV [ June 2, 2013, 9:28 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Formula Ford |
Author: | GonzoRacer [ June 2, 2013, 9:34 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Formula Ford |
That deserves a "You've come a long way, Baby!" for sure, Graham! Chassis looks good. Bodywork is getting there, it takes a great deal of time. Good progress, Sir! JDK |
Author: | veightseven [ June 2, 2013, 9:40 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Formula Ford |
Graham You are my hero. I WANT ONE!!! Are you going to make it street legal? Gale |
Author: | petteriu [ June 3, 2013, 3:33 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Formula Ford |
What happened between pictures 1 and 2 ? (=more pictures of building it !) |
Author: | trialsmangasgas [ June 3, 2013, 7:13 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Formula Ford |
Wow!!! If you do make it street legal you are going to have every cop in town following you and stopping you to check!!!!! Russ |
Author: | GonzoRacer [ June 3, 2013, 8:48 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Formula Ford |
petteriu wrote: What happened between pictures 1 and 2 ? (=more pictures of building it !) I second that!!! Got any "in progress" shots you could post? |
Author: | rx7locost [ June 3, 2013, 8:58 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Formula Ford |
Quote: What happened between pictures 1 and 2 ? A miracle occurred! Looking great Graham! More build photos are required. Otherwise we'll have to assume that the Formula Ford fairies came one night and that miracle did happen while you were sleeping. Which, come to think of it, would have been a whole lot less work. |
Author: | a.moore [ June 3, 2013, 10:59 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Formula Ford |
Great work Graham - the car looks fantastic (and more pictures please!) Did you ever determine if it was a 61? |
Author: | Earley Motorsports [ June 3, 2013, 8:41 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Formula Ford |
OK, here are some photos. Not much to look at but might give you some idea of what I have done. I will give you a little bit of the history. I have traced it back 10 owners back until the second owner in 1971. The car is a Lotus 61 and was modified right from the get go. There is not much of the original 61 frame left which took quite a while to identify but I have documentation of the majority of the changes. The second owner was Dennis Firestone who later went on to run an Indy car for a few years. This was his first racecar. It had the radiator mounted in the rear as in above the transaxle. He crashed it quite a few times and I have some photos of that and also when he was running it at Laguna Seca. He sold it ( I am not going to name all the owners) and the next guy was a big dude and had trouble fitting in it but he still raced it. The first changes to the frame was the rear tubes . The entire back of the car was cut off and the original Tri-Link rear lower control arm changed for parallel tubes. He was sick of having to do wheel alignments on the rear every time he hit a curb. As he was a big guy he decided to get rid of the original stamped steel dash bulkhead so he could get in and out easier. Also a taller roll bar was added. It tagged a wall front end first so the front suspension was removed and the suspension pick up points were moved back to the dash bulkhead. That is what everybody else was doing at that time so why not. After that it was sold again and had a few owners and the car did really well. It had lap records at PIR in Oregon, ran in hill climbs and broke records, all kinds of stuff so it has a pretty neat history. Dennis is still looking to see if he can find who he got it off as he remembers it was a guy in Orange County CA. The car was always on the left coast until I shipped it out here. So that is a brief history of the car. The photos are start from the bottom and work your way up. If you want to see any thing in particular or any questions, just ask. Graham. |
Author: | john hennessy [ June 4, 2013, 5:07 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Formula Ford |
Graham, are the centers of the rear uprights VW? and a full writup on the mods to to the Alford and alder/Triumph front uprights please, including the lower ball joints. and the inboard disc brakes. and and and |
Author: | cs3tcr [ June 4, 2013, 5:18 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Formula Ford |
John, Used the search function, and Graham had posted this: http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=12850 |
Author: | Earley Motorsports [ June 4, 2013, 9:04 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Formula Ford |
Thanks, I had forgot about putting that out there on the front spindles. The rear bearing carriers are from a dune buggy shop so they fit all the VW stuff. The hubs are turned down VW also, turned the drums off of them then adapters to the Ford lug pattern. The inboard discs are Formula Ford which fit directly onto the Hewland pattern which by the way is the same as VW. They have 6 holes in them and a small pattern. Me being the tight wade I am looked for ever to try and figure out what bolt pattern they were. Couldn't find them anywhere so I bit the bullet and bought new FF units. The rear calipers are later model Spitfire fronts modified to attach to the Hewland side plates. It should stop pretty decent as they are big brakes for such a light car. At the moment it weighs 780lbs. I doubt there will be another 100lbs worth of weight to add to it so I should be real close to minimum weight. Oh, and to all who asked, it will NOT be street legal, raced only and maybe tested on the street |
Author: | gregV [ June 4, 2013, 9:19 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Formula Ford |
Earley Motorsports wrote: .... Oh, and to all who asked, it will NOT be street legal, raced only and maybe tested on the street What class? Or just a "wings and things" kinda class? |
Author: | Earley Motorsports [ June 4, 2013, 9:45 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Formula Ford |
I will be running without the wings in Vintage FF or CFF and use the wings for HSAX and track/fun days etc. The wings (all) detach in about 5 minutes and where the front ones attach I will have small body plugs to fill in the holes. |
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